MAHON TRIBUNAL:THE LAST of the people named as having contributed to two "dig-outs" for former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has given evidence to the Mahon tribunal.
Michael Collins (68), with an address in Sydney, Australia, told the tribunal he had not cashed a cheque for €5,914 he received from Mr Ahern in December 2006. He said the cheque was the repayment of £2,500 plus interest he had given to Mr Ahern in December 1993.
Mr Collins said Mr Ahern did not explain why he was returning the money and that he did not cash the cheque. “Personally I wasn’t expecting to get it back.”
The repayment occurred after the 1993 payment had become public knowledge.
Mr Collins said he contributed to a collection for Mr Ahern because he was told Mr Ahern had financial difficulties.
Last week Mr Ahern told the tribunal about betting wins he had in the early 1990s. Tribunal counsel Des O’Neill SC asked Mr Collins if he was “aware of [Mr Ahern’s] successes on the horses” in the early 1990s. Mr Collins said he was friendly with Mr Ahern but had never gone to the races with him. Nor, he said in response to Mr O’Neill, did he know that Mr Ahern had a practice of going to Manchester for weekends in the early 1990s with thousands of pounds in cash “in his pockets”.
Mr Collins said he first met Mr Ahern in 1980. Asked if he had ever seen him short of money, Mr Collins replied: “Not really, no.” Mr Collins said he was a former business partner involved in the recruitment business with Mr Ahern’s friend and associate Des Richardson. He said that during a conversation in the Berkeley Court Hotel in 1993, Mr Richardson asked if he would contribute to a fundraising exercise for Mr Ahern personally. At the time he was no longer in business with Mr Richardson.
Mr Richardson told him “Bertie was having a hard time financially, probably due to his separation or whatever”, Mr Collins said. He could not recall the exact words.
Mr Collins said he later handed £2,500 in cash to Mr Richardson. The figure was suggested by Mr Richardson. “I understood there were other people possibly going to contribute,” Mr Collins said, but he didn’t know their identities.
Mr Collins said the idea was to present Mr Ahern with cash. He had no banking record to show his contribution. “I would have a float in my safe,” Mr Collins said.
He did not consider the payment to be a loan when he made it, but he was telephoned a few months later by Mr Ahern, who said he was accepting the money on the basis it was a loan.
Mr Collins said he was not part of a close circle of Mr Ahern’s friends. “My association with Bertie was generally in association with Des Richardson, who was or became a very close friend of Bertie’s.” Mr Collins said he had made political contributions over the years to Mr Ahern but the 1993 payment was the only personal contribution he had ever made.
Mr Collins said he moved to Australia five or six years ago.
